Tesla posts a surprise third-quarter profit following production surge
Elon Musk has come good on his promise to turn Tesla into a profit-making company by the end of 2018, posting a surprise profit of more than $300m for the three months to the end of September in a quarterly earnings update yesterday.
The profit – Tesla’s first in two years and largest ever – came on the back of increased rollout of the Model 3, Tesla’s first mass-market vehicle seen by analysts as crucial to its commercial success.
The Model 3 has been plagued by delays to production and delivery, but with the help of volunteer drivers Tesla managed to send out 56,000 Model 3s to customers in the third quarter of 2018, compared to 18,449 in the previous three-month period.
According to Elon Musk,
” The Model 3 is attracting customers of both premium and non-premium brands, making it a truly mainstream product.”
“We are thankful to our customers for being such strong advocates of our products and mission.”
The last time Tesla made a profit was back in 2016. Musk promised earlier this year the company would be back in profit by the end of 2018, after concerns were raised that the company was burning through cash at an unsustainable rate – it made a loss of $715m in Q2 of 2018, almost double that of Q2 2017.
But it appears that a reining in of costs, and consistent production numbers of the Model 3, have been enough to get Tesla back on track.
It signals positive news for the EV maker after a failed privatisation attempt caused controversy over the summer, with US regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission fining Tesla and Musk $20m each for publicising a privatisation deal that had not be finalised.
Musk insisted yesterday the swing to profits was not a one-off, confirming it expects to also deliver a profit for the final three months of this year.’
[via Business Green]
